Energy drink category dollar sales remain solid.
Wells Fargo Securities found Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) continues to lead in the carbonated soft drink category, while Monster sales remain under pressure on soft volume growth, citing Nielsen data for the four-week period ending Oct. 31, 2015, across all channels (grocery, drug, mass and convenience stores).
Coca-Cola total beverage dollar sales were up +2.3% last month (+2.9% for 12-weeks) driven by softness in CSDs offset by solid performance in Juices, Waters and Teas. Meanwhile, PepsiCo total beverage and snack dollar sales were up +2.2% last month (+2.2% for 12-weeks) as solid performance in salty snacks and several non-carb categories offset weakness in CSDs. DPS total beverage dollar sales were up a solid +3.4% last month (+3.7% for 12-weeks), driven by solid performance in CSDs and very strong results in juices and teas; and Monster dollar sales were soft, up only +5.7% during the period (+7.3% for 12-wks) based on particularly weak volume growth of 2.2%.
Total CSD (ex-Energy) dollar sales in all channels were down -0.2% (+0.1% for prior 12-weeks) during the four-week period, driven by solid average equal price growth of +3.3%, and weak equal unit volume declines of -3.4%.
The energy category had solid dollar sales growth of +9.6%, driven by strong results from Red Bull which had +10.1% dollar sales growth this period (+10% for 12-weeks) driven by +5% equal unit volume gains and +4.9% average equal pricing. Monster sales remain weak with only +5.7% dollar sales growth (+7.3% for 12-weeks), driven by very soft +2.2% equal unit volume growth and +3.4% average equal pricing growth. Rockstar continued its strong sequential improvements in its results, generating an impressive +29.9% growth in dollar sales this period and gaining a solid two equal volume share points, which Wells Fargo noted was largely sourced from Monster, which lost 2.1 share points.
